Holiday con artists strike again

A Johannesburg family found they had been swindled on Saturday, December 28, when the accommodation they had booked in Salt Rock turned out to be the home of another family who knew nothing about the supposed booking.
The flat was part of the “Le Roc” complex just in front of Grannies Pool, and the Wilkinson family had thought themselves lucky to get accommodation over the festive period, only having made the booking two weeks prior.
The invoice for the booking, which had been made over the phone with a man who called himself ‘Tony’, was emailed to the Wilkinsons under the company name of ‘Dolphin Properties’.
The name on the invoice, according to Kay Wilkinson, was ‘Adriaan Smith’ and the banking details were for an account under the name of ‘R. Lochner’.
“I didn’t think anything of it because we were just so pleased to have accommodation for those dates,” she said.
Sorely disappointed, the family managed to stay with friends overnight before flying back to Johannesburg the next day.
According to local estate agent Barbara Shingler, this type of fraud happens fairly regularly, and always during season, in the December/January or April holidays.
“We always stress that you have to go through a reputable agent, somebody you can physically speak to,” said Shingler,